The Church of Scientology played a major role in breaking up Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s marriage, and even helped the Top Gun star bug his then-wife’s phone so he could spy on her.
According to Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (based on Lawrence Wright’s book), church officials were always suspicious of Kidman because her father was a psychologist, a profession Scientologists make no secret of distrusting. They reportedly worried that Kidman, labeled a “Potential Trouble Source,” could take away their golden goose if she ever got Cruise to come to his senses and leave the church. One of the biggest bombshells to come out of the documentary is that Cruise allegedly hired a private investigator to spy on his wife as their marriage became strained. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
The movie’s phone-tapping scoop dates back to the late 1990s, while Cruise and Kidman were in London filming “Eyes Wide Shut,” Cruise was out of contact with church leader David Miscavige, who became concerned about losing Scientology’s billion-dollar member, according to the doc. At that time, the church made a successful effort to “re-educate” the couple’s two adopted children and turn them against Kidman, while also playing to the “Top Gun” star’s Scientology-fostered paranoia, according to “Going Clear.”
Cruise allegedly suggested tapping Kidman’s phone out of concern she’d be speaking of their issues to people outside the church. The tapes were reportedly given to Miscavige and kept on file, part of an effort by Scientology officials to keep an iron grip on celebrities.
If you’ve read the book Going Clear, you already know about most of the weirdness about how Cruise allows the Church of Scientology to run his personal life and empire. It may be hard to surprise anyone with news about how deeply controlling the Church of Scientology reportedly is in dealing with its members. But there’s something especially unsettling and gross about a man bugging his wife’s cellphone to keep tabs on her.
The New York Daily News reports Marty Rathbun, a former official with the Church of Scientology, was responsible for facilitating a breakup between the two stars before Cruise drifted any further away from the church. One of the alleged ways they secured Cruise’s loyalty was through information gained during intensive “auditing” sessions, during which Cruise reportedly revealed information about his sexual fetishes which Miscavige labeled “perverted.”
My question to all of you is this: Do these stories make Cruise’s couch-jumping, bizarre antics seem weirder or maybe just—sadder? The idea of a man being extorted over his sexuality and being consumed by such extreme paranoia that this information could get out stops being fodder for jokes at some point and just becomes completely fucking depressing.
[New York Daily News, Hollywood Reporter]
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Oh.
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